Category Archives: Science

Energy as a National Security Challenge —Col. Dan Nolan @ Solar Summit

In his morning keynote at the sold-out Southern Solar Summit, Col. Dan Nolan (U.S. Army ret.) asked the musical question:
“When did our Marines become Birkenstock-wearing tree huggers?”
This was after some Marines asked for solar power so they wouldn’t have to haul fuel in long convoys, which were among the most dangerous missions. Most of that fuel was going into very inefficient generators to run very inefficient air conditioners in tents in the desert. Dealing with that got the military thinking about energy security: assured access to mission-critical energy.

Looking up, he asked:

“What is it we as a nation need to understand about our own energy security?”
He identified America’s strategic center of gravity as its economy. It’s very resilient but has vulnerabilities open to attack. So how do we secure those vulnerabilities?

The main vulnerabilities are: Continue reading →

Early education prevents incarceration —peer-reviewed research

In ScienceDaily, 10 June 2011, Large-Scale Early Education Linked to Higher Living Standards and Crime Prevention 25 Years Later
In the study published June 9 in the journal Science, Reynolds and Temple (with co-authors Suh-Ruu Ou, Irma Arteaga, and Barry White) report on more than 1,400 individuals whose well-being has been tracked for as much as 25 years. Those who had participated in an early childhood program beginning at age 3 showed higher levels of educational attainment, socioeconomic status, job skills, and health insurance coverage as well as lower rates of substance abuse, felony arrest, and incarceration than those who received the usual early childhood services.
Among the detailed findings for the study group:
  • 28 percent fewer abused drugs and alcohol; 21 percent fewer males alone
  • 22 percent fewer had a felony arrest; the difference was 45 percent for children of high school dropouts
  • 28 percent fewer had experienced incarceration or jail

Here’s the journal article: Arthur J. Reynolds, Judy A. Temple, Suh-Ruu Ou, Irma A. Arteaga, and Barry A. B. White. School-Based Early Childhood Education and Age-28 Well-Being: Effects by Timing, Dosage, and Subgroups. Science, 9 June 2011 DOI: 10.1126/science.1203618.

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Invest those tax dollars in education, instead.

-jsq

VSU Faculty Senate passes anti-biomass resolution

Karen Noll reported on WACE’s facebook page that the VSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday 19 May 2011 that biomass will not be considered renewable for VSU’s climate commitment goal.

Why? Because leading medical associations have identified woody biomass incineration as increasing risks of “a variety of illnesses, some life-threatening”, because biomass incineration produces more CO2, NOX, and fine particulates than existing coal plants, and because it “may lead to unsustainable forestry practices and a net increase in global greenhouse gas emissions”.

Who proposed this? Continue reading →

Come back and expand on this one —Valdosta Mayor John Fretti

Yes, let’s celebrate Hannah Solar and this solar array! But why do people have to keep gilding the lily and claiming it’s the largest in the state when it wasn’t even back at groundbreaking? So if Valdosta Mayor John Fretti and County Commissioner Crawford Powell have agreed to expand this solar array if somebody leapfrogs it, time to get cracking! It was already leapfrogged before it was built.

After lauding his class of Leadership Lowndes over others, Mayor Fretti complimented various local organizations and said:

…not only that it has a good quality of life, it has the infrastructure that is needed for industrial recruitment, but that you will be successful when you locate in Valdosta-Lowndes County, and I think Hannah Solar is evidence of that.
All true, and note which comes first: “a good quality of life.”

Mayor Fretti quoted the first law of thermodynamics (conservation and conservation of energy) and remarked:

But now we have some energy sources in our area that we can take advantage of. Unfortunately we don’t have an ocean for tidal power. Unfortunately we don’t have geothermal as much as other areas of the country.

We do have sunlight. Certainly not as much as some areas of the country, but we have an abundance enough that we could put out what is currently the largest array in the state of Georgia.

That’s all good stuff, except this wasn’t the biggest solar array in the state even the last time Mayor Fretti stood on the same spot and said the same thing.

Maybe he (and everyone) should double-check what VLCIA tells him.

Brad Lofton knew Continue reading →

What does this mean? —Leigh Touchton

This comment from Leigh Touchton came in last night on It’s not over until it’s over. I have added links and pictures. -jsq
I asked VLCIA Board member Roy Copeland afterwards whether this means the biomass incinerator is STILL going to be built? He shrugged and walked away.

Karen Noll asked Allan Ricketts what does this mean, since we all heard Lowndes County Commission Chairman Paulk give us a very different scenario at the last LCC meeting, and his remarks were covered in the Valdosta Daily Times. Mr. Ricketts said he was not aware of Chairman Paulk’s remarks.

Continue reading →

A letter from a local physician —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on “Because it would be monitored. -jsq
Because it would be monitored?

Our community could subsequently also “monitor” increases in respiratory illnesses, cancer rates, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality rates. Just ask the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association.

This is incredible. A city council member who still hides behind an EPD air permit, and who chooses to ignore the testimony of thousands of medical professionals throughout the United States. At the same time, we have a City Council that continues to isolate itself from its citizens with a policy that undermines open dialogue.

The continued silence of our City Council and Mayor in regard to biomass is mind-boggling. Haven’t they noticed the developments of the past couple months? The regular protests? Hundreds and hundreds of signatures and voices in opposition to biomass? Ashley Paulk’s statement? George Bennett’s statement? Even a statement, it appears, by Wesley Langdale who said that biomass is economically not feasible … which is something WACE stated as far back as October 2010, supported by an article from the Wall Street journal called “(Bio)Mass Confusion”.

Dr. Mark George once asked all City Council members the following question: “What is it you still need from us, so that you understand that biomass is a bad deal”? To my knowledge that question was never answered.

Last night I shared a letter from a local physician

Continue reading →

Let’s see these “many” biomass opponents

So what’s the evidence that these biomass opponents are many, as the VDT says? We could review letters to the editors in the VDT, but let’s look at the visual evidence LAKE has recorded. With no pro-biomass demonstrators anywhere to be seen. Sure, a few people show up at government meetings to speak for the biomass plant, but by my tally they are indeed very few, and most of them are either former employees or board members of the Industrial Authority. Yes, LAKE has posted videos of them, as well: Ken Garren, Nolen Cox. Crawford Powell. Or watch the people at the microphones during the 6 December 2011 VLCIA biomass “forum” and see what you think the ratio is.

My opinion is the same as I posted last month: “Black and white, young and old, conservative and liberal, college professors and unemployed”. Come see for yourself today outside Valdosta City Hall starting at 5PM.

-jsq

Waste not, want not –Dr. Noll

Dr. Michael Noll advocated conservation and efficiency in the long-running Greening of America email discussion, responding to two messages by Valdosta City Council member James R. Wright. Dr. Noll cites our earliest American blogger. -jsq
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:55:16 -0400

Dear Councilman Wright.

Valid points and a great question to ponder. You may recall my quote from Benjamin Franklin: “Waste not, want not”.

Add to that a quote from the Sierra Club: “Energy use should be minimized through conservation and efficiency. In the near future, efficiency is the only “energy source” which does not incur some environmental damage and which is available immediately in generous supply. Sophisticated building construction, efficient appliances, recycling, modernized industrial processes, programmable thermostats, public transit supplemented by fuel-efficient cars, and many other innovative technologies can reduce energy use tremendously, while saving money.”

In other words, we are wasting enormous amounts of energy and money

Continue reading →

Valdostans protest biomass –VSU Spectator

Molly Duet writes in the VSU newspaper today:
Protestors wearing respirator masks held signs reading “Biomass? No!” in front of the Valdosta City Hall building on Thursday. Members of the Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, the VSU student organization Students Against Violating the Environment, and other concerned Valdosta citizens showed up to protest the construction of the Wiregrass Power: Biomass Electric Generating Plant.

“We already have solar power resources in place that we could be using and I feel like money should be directed towards that,” Ivey Roubique, vice-president of the Student Geological Society, said. “It wouldn’t be good for the community and even though I’m in college here it still matters.”

The Spectator article quotes from two speakers for whom LAKE happens to have video, linked below. Continue reading →

It’s an opportunity –John S. Quarterman

“Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession greener than ever, if we choose wisely.”

Here is my response to James R. Wright’s questions about jobs and priorities. -jsq

It’s an opportunity for those of us who are not currently searching for our next meal to help those who need jobs, and thereby to help ourselves, so they don’t turn to crime. Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession greener than ever, if we choose wisely.

Switchgrass seemed like a good idea five or ten years ago, but there is still no market for it.

Meanwhile, local and organic agriculture is booming, and continued to boom right through the recession.

Not just strictly organic by Georgia’s ridiculously restrictive standards for that, but also less pesticides for healthier foods, pioneered as nearby as Tifton. That’s two markets: one for farmers, stores, and farmers’ markets in growing and distributing healthy food, and one for local banks in financing farmers converting from their overlarge pesticide spraying machinery to plows and cultivators.

Similarly, biomass may have seemed like a good idea years ago, but with Adage backing out of both of its Florida biomass plants just across the state line, having never built any such plant ever, the biomass boom never happened.

Meanwhile, our own Wesley Langdale has demonstrated to the state that

Continue reading →